Catch-up
Playing catch-up from the last few weekends. It's mostly been time spent visiting family and fetching ice cream. But really what else are weekends for?
Photo Challenge Week 29 Landscape: Waterscape
I think one of the best things about living in the centre of Bridgnorth is that I never have to venture far to find something beautiful to shoot. So for the 'waterscape' theme we walked into lowtown and spent some time by the river and as we sat there in the baking sunlight, watching the fish jump for the bugs and the birds dive for the fish I was filled with such a longing for my childhood spent in my canoe, on this same river, in under the same summer sun.
Light Testing - Home Photography Studio Bridgnorth
Figuring out a studio set up that I'm happy with has and continues to be an ongoing process for me. My space is very limited which restricts the amount of equipment that I can use and therefor effects the kinds of images that I can take. It's incredibly frustrating and it put me off really spending any time with my studio gear because I couldn't get the results that I wanted. But with a cake smash coming up and after looking over my space with scrutiny, trying to decide if I could rearrange the area to utilise the more baby friendly natural light, I had an epiphany. If I placed the backdrop in a different position to accommodate the natural light, I might lose some space in terms of distance between myself and the subject, but I'd gain a new light source, more width and therefor more space to add modifiers where I couldn't before and with my newer lenses, distance wasn't necessarily an issue I couldn't work around. It was worth a try.
So as always, before the cake smash I tested out the set up with Rory, and I was so pleased with the results! When previously I would shove the backdrop at the furthest end of the room to give myself adequate distance, I brought it forwards, opening up the space for a fill light, reflector and giving the subject far more space to move around. I think the original set up will still be perfect for headshots, and full-body portraits with adults, as I can control the light and my own movement is more important than the model's, but for kids and shooting lower to the ground, this is great and I can't wait to find an excuse to use it again!
Esmee's first birthday cakesmash photoshoot
This little munchkin is Esmee, who for as long as I've known her has loathed my camera. I try not to take it personally. But as it was her birthday, we put together a little cakesmash shoot to celebrate, because who doesn't love cake?
The most complicated thing about working with babies is that it's so difficult to make them feel at ease in a bizarre situation. We spend so much of our time teaching them to be wary of anything unfamiliar, to eat neatly, and then here I am trying to convince them mashing their hands in a cake is a fun idea. The lights are weird, the camera is weird, and everyone is watching them.
Some kids are completely comfortable in front of the camera, while others take longer to get used to it and you can never know which way it's going to go until the time comes. So since Esmee got a little stage fright, I decided to scrap the flash and use natural light instead, and after letting her eat her crisps for a bit and with Daddy nearby for reassurance she gradually relaxed and we got some really sweet photographs. Working with babies is always a challenge and takes time but in the end it's always worth it. They take the best pictures!
Photo Challenge Week 28 Portrait: Family
The most frustrating part of being a photographer is having the means to capture the important moments in your life, but never really being able to be a part of those moments without having to stage them. I had already decided that this week I wouldn't use a timer or a tripod, because I didn't want a 'family portrait' with a wriggling toddler and fixed smiles on our faces. I have enough of those already. Instead I wanted to do what I do best, and capture a feeling of what family means to me and our lazy Sundays before we get up and start the day are always my favourite times to spend together with them.
Post Processing: Dodge & Burn
My first experience with photography was before digital really became available to the masses (or at least not to the 16 year old, broke art student masses). Phone cameras were shocking compared to today's standards and disposable cameras were a waste of time for someone who wanted changeable lenses. So I worked with film, always in black and white and all but lived in my college's dark room, which was fine, because by the time I was in my second year I pretty much had the place to myself. One of the first techniques I learned there was 'dodging and burning' a method that involved obscuring areas of photo paper as it was being exposed under the enlarger to over and underexpose the areas of the image that needed to be darker or lighter than they were on the original negative. Sounds like a headache? It was!
But my familiarity with the approach meant that it was pretty much the only thing I used photoshop for in the early days with my DSLR, and still it's my favourite tool to use because of it's ability make an otherwise perfectly exposed, but somewhat flat photograph full of depth and dimension.
I find that dodging and burning work best on black and white shots as when they're used heavily on colour pictures you also have to contend with the change in colour saturation and it can make the picture look obviously overworked. Too much use can also lead to the loss of detail, in the shot below for example the areas I've highlighted were really blown out by the dodge tool, completely removing any detail with patches of solid white. A similar issue happened with the burn tool in the bottom left corner of the shot where all detail was removed by shadow. Sometimes, however I think under and over exposing in small sections gives the overall image some balance. Before the editing, I think this shot looks incredibly flat, but by dodging the areas that I did creates an illusion of highlights where there were only a few.
I used the dodge and burn tools here to paint in light and shadow around the raindrop and enhance it's definition, using different sized brush strokes depending on the section of the shot. The dodge and burn tools work by darkening dark pixels and lightening light ones, so for them to work well there has to be enough of a balanced exposure in the first place. You could try to darken an area of solid white, but it wouldn't look very flattering just as painting in highlights within an area of shadow wouldn't work very well. Better to simply create a real life highlight or shadow and then lighten or darken it afterwards.
This technique doesn't lend itself well to portraits for me, as light falls in a far more subtle way on faces and because skin tends to form a large area of a similar tone sometimes brush strokes for any kind can be obviously noticeable. The dodge tool can brighten reflections of light in eyes and lips and make skin appear smoother in some images, while the burn tool is perfect for darkening lashes and used to slightly darken shadows on skin.
As with most photoshop editing, I find that these techniques work best when only used in small amounts. We tend to except digital alterations more when they're used only a little, too much and our eyes know they're being lied to. It's always best to get a shot as perfect in-camera as you can before making adjustments in post not only to save time but to maintain image quality.
This Week - 10/07/2016
For the last few weeks we've been spent our weekends taking the cliff railway (or choo-choo train as Rory calls it) into low town to feed the ducks and get ice cream. We know all the best places.
Step Back to the 40's at Bridgnorth Severn Valley Railway
On Saturday we went out for ice cream and on our way home discovered that there was a 1940's event taking place at the SVR, so we had to pop over and grab a couple of pictures of the amazing outfits and memorabilia that people bring along. It really is quite the event and I have to attend it properly (and with all the right camera gear) one day.
Photo Challenge Week 27 Artistic: Blue
I always find that the most themes most open to interpretation are the most difficult to work with because I spend so much time thinking up ideas instead of shooting. I did have a lot of fun with this week's 'blue' theme though, as I assumed it would be a cinch (there's bound to be so much to choose from, right?) but surprisingly, finding something of a specific colour that's interesting enough to take a picture of isn't exactly simple or easy at all.
Anna & Bryan's Shropshire Summer Wedding
Anna & Bryan were married on a Saturday and after a full week of rain we were greeted with nothing but perfect sunshine from beginning to end of their wonderful day.
I spent the first part of the morning with the girls, while they got their hair (by Salon Blue) and make-up (by Beauty Benefits) done, and Stu my assistant for the day popped over to grab a few shots of the guys at a second location. This was the first time I'd ever been able to provide both sets of preparations to a couple and it was really great to be able to show what was happening for both the bride and groom before they met up at the church.
There were so many gorgeous little details and finishing touches that made this wedding such a treat to photograph, from the groom's cufflinks engraved with the date of the wedding to the most unusual shade of roses picked to compliment the bridesmaid's fino lavender dresses.
Anna walked to the church from her Mum's house only a few streets away and while we waited for her arrival, passers-by stopped to catch a glimpse of the bride.
There were so many gorgeous little details and finishing touches that made this wedding such a treat to photograph, from the groom's cufflinks engraved with the date of the wedding to the most unusual shade of roses picked to compliment the bridesmaid's fino lavender dresses.
Anna walked to the church from her Mum's house only a few streets away and while we waited for her arrival, passers-by stopped to catch a glimpse of the bride.
The ceremony took place in the stunning Holy Trinity Church in Much Wenlock, where the priest was kind enough to allow me to shoot the entire service from the very front of the church, which meant I was able to get this perfect shot of Bryan, right as he saw his new bride for the first time.
The reception was at Bridgnorth's Edgar Davies' Rugby Club where Bryan is coach and so we got to shoot all of these quirky, rugby themed formal shots before the bride and groom were announced to their guests in the marquee. It's not often a bride is willing to risk the dust and dirt of a sports pitch to get a cool photograph, and Anna even got herself a pair of wellies worthy of any glamorous rugby bride!
The Marquee was decked out with chandeliers, a checkerboard dance floor, beautiful, vintage teacups placed on top of stacks of books and filled with flowers for table centre pieces. The tables were named for locations important to the couple and they had this amazing seating plan handmade by one of the guests. So much time, effort and love went into this wedding and it made it such a pleasure to be a part of.
© CHRISTINA-CLARE PHOTOGRAPHY